In Bronze and Gold
by Lady of Something
Summary: Kati-Rose is a university graduate, celebrating the end of her official schooling with her friends. But when a gift from them has a fantastical power and she is sucked away from that universe, can she survive travelling around the Doctor? Or will she fall like those before her? (An O.C DW fic, because Ff.n so needs more of them *sarcasm*. T is for non-graphic torture (it's DW))
1. Because Trees Glow Golden at Parties

**Chapter 1: Because Trees Glow Golden at Parties.**

_So, I want an OC companion. She'll look young, but be around 22/23 years old. She is (was) a Kiwi in Australia. So no 'fair dinkum aussie' accent- she'll have a Kiwi lilt (which is pretty) unless it is written that she doesn't. This is basically me ('Cept she's prettier and cooler and doesn't have to write fanfics to get her Doctor Who kicks) in a fanfic (yeah, I'm dreaming). And as much as I would like to, she will not fan-girl over eleven (much)._

_Her full name is Katiana Rosalind (pronounced Kah-ti-ahn-a _ Roz-ah-lind), but let's call her Kati-Rose._

Alright, Word accessory (I tend to think of these as clothing for letters) coding:

(Brackets): extra additions.  
_Italics_: other languages (mainly French).  
**Bold**: accentuated.  
CAPS: shouting. (Duh.)  
**oOo**: new scene? Part?  
**xXx**: new chapter/episode

**xXx**

Disclaimer: I only own the plot. So far...

**xXx**

"Congrats, Kati-Rose", "Good Job, Kati" and, "OMG! You survived Uni!" are the main things she heard at the end-of-uni party for all the graduates. It was noisy, the lights were irritating and all Kati-Rose wanted to do was go home and watch the 50th special with her fellow whovians. But they were due at her apartment at 7:15, so she still had half an hour to deal with. Shoot, she said internally. Someone fell into her, and she stepped back, rolling her eyes. Drunken idiots, she complained silently. Kati-Rose grabbed some punch (out of the **un**-spiked bowl, thank you very much) and headed outside to relax. It had been a trying few weeks, and all she really wanted to do was watch a movie and **rest**. She went to sit under her favourite oak tree and gazed out over the grounds, sipping her punch (she was pretty sure it was a mixture of orange and mango. Yum).

Looking out at the grounds, Kati-Rose realised (with a touch of surprise) that she was really going to miss this place. Sure, it was mainly concrete, but the few garden areas were beautiful (even if a bit overgrown). And, yeah, she didn't really like the people here, but the teachers weren't all that bad (even though they give her headaches). She sighed. It could be one of the worst looking universities in the world, with some of the most snobby students and noisiest teachers, but she would still miss it. Kati-Rose glanced over to the hall: everyone was still dancing and laughing, just as they had been an hour previously, when the sun was still up. Where did their energy come from? She wondered.

Too tired to do anything else, she sat under the oak until the alarm she'd set for 7 went off, then she walked over to her car, and backed out of the lot, never noticing the tree she'd leant against glowing gold faintly, before returning to it's original state.

**xXx**

_Yeah, it's short but this is just an intro. The next chapter will be up soon._

_Edit: Ha ha, E-dirt. In case you haven't noticed, I changed the age from 25/26 to 22/23, because I have been reliably informed I will not be taking a break before I go to uni. Thanks, mum. Mind you, I wouldn't do anything in that break. I'd just write fanfiction all the time. Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?_

_-LoS_


	2. I'm a Poet and I Didn't Even Know It

**Chapter Two: I'm a Poet and I Didn't Even Know It.**

_AKA My reaction to the reviews for Can't Care Too Much._

**xXx**

As much as I would like to, I don't own it. Which is a shame.

**xXx**

When Kati-Rose was back at her apartment, she let out a breath in relief. It looked just as it had when she'd left it (Kati-Rose was paranoid of break-ins, and pretty much any 'form of crime against her person', as her mum had said). Her denim jacket was still on her chair, where she'd thrown it this morning; her outfit for the get-together was still laid out on her couch, and her pictures were, as always, facing the door, beaming at her. It was good to be back.

Kati-Rose checked the time, swore softly and picked up her outfit before heading to her room to have a shower. After she'd towelled herself off, she went to look in the mirror. A girl peered back at her, with straight black hair and brown eyes. That was her, Kati-Rose. However, when she turned away, she noticed a different reflection: one with wild brown hair that shimmered gold and hazel blue eyes that flashed the same. But she shrugged this off as a trick of the light, and got dressed.

Five minutes later, she'd changed out of the shimmery dress and tights into comfortable jeans and a long-sleeved TARDIS blue top. Kati-Rose knew she'd cut it close when she heard a knock on the door (four times, of course), and rushed over to let her lifelong friend, Katy, in. Kati-Rose embraced the brunette in a hug, squeezing tightly, and squealed when Katy responds with the same treatment.

"Kat, it's been too long!" she said when her friend released her. "Will the others be here soon?"

"Yup," Katy-dubbed-Kat responded. They started walking over to the couch.

"So, Kati-Rose, what are we watching that's got you so excited? You look like the Doctor in a good mood." She teased.

Kati-Rose frowned, before smiling, trying to hide the headache symptoms she'd received as soon as her friend compared her to the time-lord on her favourite show. However, she was spared answering when a voice called out from the doorway, "I've got popcorn!" and Kati-Rose dashed over, smiling. At the door stood Jade (whose favourite colour, coincidently, was green), and she was holding microwaveable popcorn in her hand, the packets fanned out like a hand of cards.

"And Selena's coming soon with the present we got you." Jade said, still smiling. Kati was about to protest, when the blonde waved her off with the hand that didn't have the popcorn. "You finished uni a week later than us, and you took us out for dinner on your study night. You are accepting this gift."

A voice (Selena, Kati recognised) declared from behind Jade, "She certainly is. I didn't let you two drag me on a shopping trip for nothing, you know. Now get out of the way, Jade, you're blocking the door."

Jade and Kati-Rose shared a smile, before stepping aside to let Selena through, her black hair swinging behind her as she did. Jade held her hand up, demonstrating with her fingers while Kati-Rose counted down mentally. 3, 2, 1... thud. There, at that moment, was Selena. Tripping (as she always does) 3 steps after entering her apartment. It was like she was magnetised to the floor after that point_. _ Selena grinned good-naturedly up at them while they laughed at her misfortune.

"Every time!" Kat cried through peals of laughter. Kati-Rose offered her friend a hand up, and she accepted, placing the present on the table. Jade moved over to the microwave, putting the first load of popcorn in, while Kat got the drinks out of the fridge. Kati stood before her friends, and they looked up at her.

"OK, present now, or later?" Kati pondered, in a classic thinking pose.

"Now!" the girls screamed, scandalised. Kati-Rose laughed: they refused to wait to open presents. She turned to face the gift on the table. It is, as are most presents wrapped by Selena, done up in TARDIS-blue paper, with a red ribbon tied around it in a bow.

Kati tugged at the tail ends of the bow, and the ribbon fell off. She very carefully pulled off all the sticky-tape (it annoyed them that she took so much care in unwrapping presents), and took off the paper. She gasped, and tentatively opened the velvet pendant box, flipping back the lid to display a sparkling diamond set in a relatively thick silver oval, so that it hung at exactly the right spot.

"_Oh mon dieu_." Kati-Rose swore, before adding a hasty, "Excuse my French," at which all present laughed.

She looked up at the others, their faces falling at her shocked expression.

"Don't you like it?" asked Kat.

"Like it? I Love it! But why- How-?"

Her friends laughed, it wasn't often that she was speechless, and they'd learnt to savour it when she was. She turned back to the pendant: it really was beautiful.

"Are you gonna put it on?" Selena asked.

Kati-Rose thought for a moment. "No, not yet. After popcorn and movie." she saw Kat about to ask what they were watching. She sighed.

"Yes, Kat, It's the 50th." She blocked her ears as Kat starts squealing. Kat is such a girl, she complained in her head.

Kati-Rose walked over to switch the TV on and went to the home-screen as Jade got the popcorn out of the microwave and Kat poured out the drinks. Selena plonked down on the sofa next to her, soon joined by Kat and Jade, who proceeded to share out the popcorn and drinks.

For the next 45 minutes the girl's gazes are glued to the TV, squealing at irregular intervals (for example, when they saw Rose and the 4th Doctor) and quite often bouncing up and down on the sofa in delight and excitement (as the Doctor said: what's the point of being grown up if you can't act a little childish sometimes).

After the 50th special and all was said and done, Kati's friends left her apartment, one by one (A.N: I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. OK, I'm good. Let's try again).

Once her friends had left, Kati-Rose's gaze was drawn to the pendant in the box on the kitchen table. She had been thinking about it ever since she'd received it and had just shrugged it off. However, now, it was like a compulsion charm had been placed on her (Potter-head, too. 43 was her record so far), telling her to try it on. Kati walked towards it, slowly, hesitantly, and carefully took the pendant out of the box.

She undid the clasp, reached around the back of her neck and redid it. However, as soon as the necklace dropped to its intended position (next to her heart), Kati-Rose collapsed to the floor, unconscious, and anyone watching would have seen her being doused in golden sparks before fading out of existence, leaving only a faint glowing patch behind. Though that soon faded as well.

**xXx**

_First chapter, done! Love it, hate it, burn it? Is anyone actually reading this? I know, there's too many O.C taken away by the Doctor fanfics, and I know I cannot write very well, but please review with an opinion? Self-doubt is destroying me. If no-one is reading this, then I'm not going to do it- my life is busy enough as it is._

_Ta-ta (for now) and sorry for complaining,  
LoS _:D


	3. Two Signs of a Madness Called Insanity

**Two Signs of a Madness Called Insanity.**

_This is for _The Ghostly Horse_. The only reason this chapter exists beyond my hard-drive is because of her. So, y'all that have fave'd or followed but didn't review, the only reason I didn't just hoard this on my computer is because of her feedback. Ghostly, the English language has once again failed me in expressing my need for you to keep reading and providing feedback for my fics. You matter much, much more to me than you will ever know. Love ya!_

_Ok, sappy stuff over, here is a new chapter. I swear, interesting stuff happens._

**xXx**

If you think I should own it, you are awesome. Sorry to burst your bubble.

**xXx**

When Kati-Rose came to (she assumed that she had been unconscious – she doesn't just randomly fall asleep on her feet, thank-you very much), it was to receive a pounding headache, and to see a familiar-looking red-head peering down at her anxiously. She looked past the woman, hoping to get a glimpse of the room (she had slight tunnel vision), but the only thing she noticed was that it was white, _very_ white, before she went back to thinking about the woman.

Where do I know her from? Kati-Rose pondered. Wait... Pond! She's Amy Pond! From Doctor Who- but she cut off this thought stream. **No**, (she was talking to herself: first sign of insanity). Get a grip. You just came out of unconsciousness, you can't just walk around (not that she could walk) accusing strangers of being people on the television. Kati-Rose was quite set in her 'I won't call people by names on the TV' policy when the red-head turned, and called out,

"RORY! Kati-Rose is awake! Get your stupid face down here!"

_Oh. Mon. Dieu_. Kati-Rose swore internally. There is no way this could be happening! Maybe? No. I am dreaming. This isn't Amy Pond, this isn't the TARDIS med bay, and the woman knows my name because of my charm bracelet (she'd gotten it when she was 16, and had worn it ever since- she'd gotten a charm with Kati at her 18th and a rose on it for her 20th). She stopped her internal argument (second sign of madness, you know) and decided to just ask.

"Excuse me? Two- no, sorry, three questions: One, are you Amelia Pond, Two, where am I? And Three, how do you know my name?" A fourth question popped into her head. "And, also, a bonus four, not that you'll be able to answer this, am I dreaming?"

The woman (now dubbed as Amy) nodded for the first, turned pale at the second, became shocked at the third, and seemed to go into mourning at the fourth. Even though this was obviously bad news, watching Amy's face go through this process was fascinating. In the corner of her mind, something noticed that her voice was more musical than before, but she mentally shrugged it off.

"RORY!" she yelled again, and Kati winced. Amy looked down at her and said a soft, "Sorry,", moving away from the _whatever_ Kati-Rose was lying on to sit in the chair a little away from it, before going back to yelling, "Bring the Doctor with you!"

Ok. I am dreaming, Kati-Rose decided. This cannot be happening. She grinned at the white ceiling, nonetheless. She decided to just go with it. She wondered where she was in the time stream, and she'd have shrugged, but she still had that pounding headache.

Rory rushed into the room, panting (he'd obviously run- obviously) and once looking at Kati, smiled. She smiled back, unsure of how to react. He came closer to the bed and Amy flung herself into her husband's arms.

"She doesn't know! She thinks she'd dreaming!" she almost-sobbed into his shirt.

"What doesn't she know? Dreaming what?" Asked a voice from the doorway. Kati turned her head to face it (this room was way too white) and saw, standing there, the Doctor. _Oh mon dieu_, she swore again. He was even cuter in real life, she decided (what was she thinking?! He was a two-hearted alien she'd only just met, she can't have a crush after five seconds!). The Doctor, however, was focused on Amy.

"No..." he whispered, his face pale, and Amy nods. He turns to look at Kati-Rose.

"Kati-Rose?" he asked, almost pleading.

"Well, I normally am." she said, only slightly unsure of whether she still was. The Doctor however, frowned as if working out a terribly difficult problem, and he immediately made a (bad) excuse to leave the room.

"I've got a thing... I'll just..." he said to Rory, who nodded, rubbing Amy's back consolingly. The Doctor ran out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him. Kati winced at the noise. Can't anyone consider her headache? She complained internally.

"What was that?" She asked (snapped), curious (irritated).

"That's- complicated. And spoilers. And you said to never tell you. Sorry- future you. But she said I could tell you that."

Even dream-wise, this was insane. It was kinda like those fanfics with an OC companion (her favourite was Time Child), where they were sucked into a parallel universe where Doctor Who was real life and they kept on jumping around with a faulty vortex manipulator or something.

"So... let me guess." Rory blinked, then nodded consent, still comforting Amy. "Alright, wild stab at the dart: I'm in an alternate universe where the Doctor is real, and I have a relationship or something with him, but I keep on jumping around for some reason or another, and even though I'm like your best friend or something, this is the first time I, like, **me** I, have come here. That it?" Amy spun around in disbelief, a shocked expression on her face.

Rory nodded slowly, "Yeah, pretty much."

"Alright, question: what happens just before I 'jump'" She asked. Her headache had intensified, and there was a sharp throbbing behind her right eye.

"You said that you got a headache, and you start glowing gold..." he said uncertainly, then appeared to notice a golden tint to her skin, "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'." She was leaving again. Maybe this is me waking up, she considered. Maybe it's all just a dream. Maybe I actually have fallen asleep, as unlikely as it is. But if she had fallen asleep, Kati-Rose didn't want to wake up yet.

"How long have I got?" She asked Rory. But Amy replied.

"About a minute."

Kati-Rose swallowed, and nodded. She sat up, despite the headache, and the white room spun. Rory abandoned Amy to help her steady herself.

"Your gravitational balance will take a while to kick in. Just lean on me until you're ready." He explained.

Kati closed her eyes until the dizzy spell was over, then nodded, and Rory helped her to stand up. After finding her 'gravitational balance' (if such a thing really existed in the TARDIS), she motioned for Rory to leave her be and began walking around the small room. Kati-Rose's headache wasn't letting up. She must be leaving soon. She spun to face the couple.

"Alright- Ames, Roronicus," they blinked at the nicknames, "I'll see you 'round." Kati winked before disappearing in golden sparks.

The remaining inhabitants of the room stared in shock at the place she had been before she jumped.

"Did she just-" Rory started.

"Yes. She did." Amy said, a wide smile on her face. Kati-Rose was becoming the girl that they knew.

**xXx**

_I may have also lied about the interesting. But hey, at least _stuff _happened! Hope you enjoyed. R&R for a new chapter before Saturday! If I get two reviews, I WILL post a new one. I promise._


	4. Not Noticing You're Barefoot

**Chapter 4: Not Noticing You're Barefoot... is Depressing.**

_Yeah, I ran out of room for the chapter title._

_New Earth! Woop woop! Well, I did promise if I got two reviews for chapter three I would post a chapter before Saturday, so..._

_Y'all owe this chapter to the combined efforts of_ The Ghostly Horse _and _BowTiesAreCool97. _Thanks so much for your support!_

**xXx**

You think I own Doctor Who? That's so sweet.

**xXx**

Kati-Rose landed in a shower of golden sparks, and almost instantly noticed that she was in the coral TARDIS. This meant it was either the ears or the coat ruling the time vortex, she thought. What she didn't so instantly notice was that she wasn't wearing shoes (she hadn't noticed this at the other TARDIS either: that was just depressing). However, this was brought to her attention when she started walking towards the console. Metal is freezing, she decided. As soon as this thought rushed through her mind, the TARDIS gave a hum, and the floor heated.

"Thanks, Dear." Kati-Rose muttered, and the TARDIS gave another hum in thanks.

The Doctor (coat version. Awesome) decided at that moment to pop his head around the side of the TARDIS.

"Oh. Hello, Kati-Rose!" He said (with a noticeable Scottish burr, unlike his TV counterpart), grinning wildly. When the Doctor moved closer, Kati took a step backwards, bumping against the railing. He stopped, noticing the outfit (had she shown him a picture or something?) and the reaction, and pulled a face.

"Early days, huh?" Kati nodded. Early, she thought with a scoff. Try first.

"Been convinced that it's not a dream yet?"

She frowned, "Do I need to be? I mean, 'cause I do tend to dream, like normal people do, and I noticed that while you're still in it, you can't tell if it's real or fake." Kati-Rose tilted her head to the side, and pursed her lips.

"I'm just going to stick with: If it's not a dream, Awesome!" The Doctor grinned at this, "If it is, I'll enjoy it while it lasts.'"

"Good philosophy! That's a good word, philosophy, a brilliant word in fact, and why haven't you got any shoes?" he finished, noticing Kati's lack of footwear. She rolled her eyes. BBC hadn't gotten it that wrong. He had a gob in real life, too. A voice called from by the coral archway (she'd noticed that, unlike the BBC had made it, there were coral archways in the walls, that most likely led to other parts in the TARDIS. She should probably stop comparing things to the BBC).

"Doctor, who are you talking to?" Kati spun around to face the new arrival, who was slowly making her way up the stairs. She almost instantly noticed the blonde hair, and grinned. Awesome. Kati-Rose appraised Rose's outfit. Blue jumper, black pants. She turned to face the Doctor, beaming.

"Are we going to New Earth? You can't have already been, there's no apple smell. So when we going?!" She asked excitedly.

The Doctor grinned at her excitement and Rose gave a gasp.

"Kati?" she questioned, noticing her. "It's you! Oh, I was wondering when you were going to drop by again!" she said cheerfully, enveloping her in a hug. Kati stiffened, and the Doctor moved forward to tap Rose's shoulder. Rose drew back, confused, a questioning look on her face.

"It's early for her. She's probably only just met you." the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear. Her lips formed a little 'O' and she stepped back, blushing slightly, and saying a whispered apology, that Kati-Rose waved off.

The TARDIS went into an awkward silence that was broken by the Doctor clapping his hands together and rushing to the console, dancing around, flipping levers, and the TARDIS shook slightly before landing with a thud. The Doctor leaned underneath the console, reaching around for something, before withdrawing with an 'aha!'. He turned to face Kati-Rose, holding in his hands a pair of running shoes exactly her size.

"Future you left them here the last time she came." he explained, and she put them on without voicing complaint, though it was rather sad that she wouldn't be changing shoe-size any time soon.

The Doctor rushes over to the doors, Kati and Rose sharing a smile before following. The Doctor flung the door, and bowed, with a, "Ladies first."

Kati grinned. She took Rose's arm in her own, said, "Why thank-you, my dear sir," and they walked out of the TARDIS, closely followed by the Doctor. They found themselves gazing out over a river to a beautiful city, with cars zipping around in the air. It was stunning.

"It's the year five billion and twenty-three. We're in the galaxy M87, and this, as Kati-Rose said, is New Earth." the Doctor said as they watch the cars in the city.

"That's- That's just-" Rose said, unable to find words.

"Amazing. Brilliant. Fantastic." Kati-Rose suggested, grinning.

"All of those." Rose laughed. "Oh, I'll never get used to this. Never."

"Different ground beneath my feet," Kati-Rose started (Yes, she stole Rose's line. That was what she was here for).

"Different sky." Rose completed. "What's that smell?"

Kati-Rose grinned. "Apple grass. Isn't it lovely?" (she didn't particularly like apples, but they smelt really nice. An apple a day keeps the Doctor away, as the saying goes – she'd sworn off eating whole apples ages ago)

"Apple grass?" Rose asked.

"Apple grass." the Doctor confirmed, grinning manically.

"Oh, this is amazing." Rose smiled, "What's that city?" she asked.

"New New York." Kati and the Doctor chorused.

"Oh, come on." Rose giggled, "Really?"

"It is." Kati-Rose insisted, "It's the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original, so that makes it New New New, New New New, New New New, New New New, New New New New York." She noticed that the Doctor was pouting, and she grinned.

"It's all right, Doctor." she consoled him, "The next time you prattle off information, I'll let you do it, OK?" The Doctor stopped pouting and Kati-Rose grins.

"So can we go visit New New York? So good they named it twice?" Rose asked.

"Actually, no. We're going there." the Doctor said, pointing to a glassy building off to the side of the city with a green moon on the side.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"It's a hospital." Kati-Rose smiled, " He got a message on his psychic paper."

"Oh, you and your 'All-Seeing' eye." the Doctor grumbled, "Off we go!"

"Allons-y!" Kati-Rose grinned.

**oOo**

"Bit rich coming from you." Rose laughed while Kati-Rose giggled.

"I can't help it. I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps." The Doctor complained, as the intercom sounded in the background.

"Not exactly NHS." Rose criticised, looking around the hospital interior. It was rather metallic, and nothing like the hospitals in the 21st century. The Doctor ignored her.

"No little shop. I like the little shop." He complained. Kati-Rose grinned. He is so cute when he's upset, she thought smugly (she face-palmed herself inside, though- her thoughts were so embarrassing. But at least she was more mature). They started walking slowly toward the lifts.

"I'd have thought this far in the future they'd have cured everything." Rose stated curiously.

"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses," Kati-Rose told her, "It's an ongoing war."

Rose nodded in understanding, then looked around wildly at the nurses. "They're cats," she said in disbelief.

"Now, don't stare. Look what you look like to them, all... pink and yellow," the Doctor told Rose.

"Oi!" Kati-Rose elbowed him, "Rude!" she said in a loud whisper.

The Doctor had the grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry Rose," he said glumly, and the two girls shared a smile.

Kati-Rose leaned over to whisper in Rose's ear, "I'll hopefully be able to tell you why he dislikes hospitals back in the TARDIS. He can't keep any secrets from me." and Rose smiled and nodded slightly.

"I know."

"Right there." the Doctor said suddenly. "That's where I'd put the shop." He walks into the lift (Ward 26, thanks!), and Kati-Rose paused for a moment, remembering what happened next.

"Get in." she told Rose, and she frowned, but listened, and the doors closed behind her. The lift started going up.

(Somewhere, below the hospital, Cassandra told Chip "We'll take her anyway.")

"Kati-Rose," she heard the Doctor calling, "are you Ok? Is there another lift?"

"Yeah, there is." she assured them, and got into the lift that had just arrived, asking for Ward 26. But, as it did with Rose in the episode, the lift went down, instead.

A robotic voice sounded, "Commence Stage One Disinfection", and spray shot out of the roof and walls. Kati-Rose began washing her hair, but stopped, and brought a lock of hair in front of her eyes, a shocked expression on her face.

This isn't my hair, she thought in horror. Her hair was black, and dead straight. This hair was a curly dark-brown, and looked like- the hair of the girl in the mirror, she realised. There was a whirring noise, and the spray shut off, to be replaced by a warm breeze, that dried her new hair and sent it into an out of control bunch of ringlets. That would get annoying.

The doors opened to a dimly lit corridor filled with rubbish. There was a young man with patterns adorning the visible parts of his body waiting for her outside the lift. Kati-Rose stepped out, and greeted him, in a posh voice,

"Hello, Chip. I must say, your patterns are looking absolutely vibrant today."

She gave him a polite smile, said, "Lead the way," and followed him down the corridor to the trampoline known to little as Cassandra, the last human.

Inside the room, there was a small screen, playing a video of Cassandra at a dinner party when she was still beautiful. Kati-Rose ignored the screen, and addressed the current Cassandra.

"Hello, Cassie." Kati-Rose said to the sheet of skin on the rusted frame.

"Hello, freak." The skin greeted her.

"Radiant as ever, I see. How's your pet doing? Are you feeding him right?" Kati-Rose asked, ignoring the rude comment.

"I worship the mistress." Chip told her. "She does no wrong."

"Moisturise me, moisturise me." Cassandra sang, and Chips darted over to her, spray bottle in hand. It was rather sickening to see someone obey orders like that, especially if they had no other choice.

"How are you doing after your self-destruction?" Kati-Rose asked her, watching in a sort of horrified fascination as Chip sprayed every centimetre of the skin.

"You mean, after Rose murdered me?" Cassandra said nastily.

"Whatever. You exploded." Kati-Rose smiled, glad to have a reason to tease Cassandra. "Oh yeah! You're talking out of your a-"

"Ask not!" Cassandra interjected.

"Mistress was lucky to survive." Chip informed her. "Chip secreted m'lady into the hospital. Chip steals medicine. Helps m'lady. Soothes her, strokes her."

Kati-Rose suppressed a shudder. Too much information, her mind stated.

"But I'm so alone, hidden down here." Cassandra told her, self-pitying, "The last human in existence."

Kati-Rose laughed. Last flap of skin, maybe. "Cut to the chase Cassie. What do you want me for?" She already knew, of course. But she might as well ask. Golden energy grabbed her hands, holding them still, and she tensed, knowing what was going to happen next.

"Chip, activate the psychograft!" Cassandra demanded, and Chip flipped a lever. Light streamed down from a contraption above her head. Cassandra, of course, had a little 'Farewell, I win', message.

"The Lady's moving on. It's goodbye trampoline, and hello, bronzie."

There was a stream of energy travelling from Cassandra to Kati-Rose, then everything stopped and Kati-Rose collapsed.

Chips rushes over. "Mistress?" he called frantically.

Cassie (A.N: Cassandra in Kati-Rose's body will be called Cassie) groaned, and said frantically, "Moisturise me!" before stopping. Cassie stood up, and examined her stolen body.

"How bizarre." she commented, looking at 'her' arms: they were tanned bronze, and she had 'Piano fingers'. She tugged at a lock of hair: it was a brown-gold, and absolutely gorgeous.

"Arms, fingers, hair!" she noticed that Chip was carrying a mirror.

"Let me see! Let me see!" Cassie demanded. She looked at her new features. Prominent eyebrows, pretty pink lips, a faint scattering of freckles on her olive cheeks. Hazel-blue eyes with dark lashes. Messy ringlets that framed her face. Light scarring (chicken pox, maybe?), but that gave her character.

"Oh my God! I'm tanned!"

**xXx**

_Cassie, what are you planning? Yes, (New) Kati-Rose is tanned. Good Gummi-bears, this is long. Y'all better love me for this. Yeah, this is sort-of self-insertion, but my name isn't Kati-Rose. And this isn't in first person, because in _Fallen Angel_ I was brave. And I'm not a uni graduate. And I'm not- so do you get it? Not self-insertion._

_Though Kati-Rose is the Lady... of something. Awww, yeah! *brings hand up for high-five*_

_Ta-ta (for now),_  
_LoS_ :D


	5. Being Shoved Around By Gold Sparkles

**Chapter 5: Being Shoved Around By Gold Sparkles.**

_According to leading experts, studies have shown that being pushed around your mind-scape by golden sparkles is great exercise!  
Next up, an exclusive interview with Tinkerbell..._

**xXx**

You still think I own it? I'm flattered!

**xXx**

While Cassandra was in her mind, Kati-Rose was viewing the world as if in a dream. She felt, rather than heard, people talking, and saw the actions she was making rather than making them. Her senses were dulled, protected by a shimmering gold mist. However, when Cassandra left her, it was like being dunked in cold water and placed in front of the sun.

Kati-Rose gasped, and held her head, the heels of her palms pressing into her eyes and her nails digging into her scalp. Outside her little bubble of pain and light, she heard Rose and the Doctor-Cassandra talking, but couldn't pay attention. What had Cassandra been doing to her head? She screamed internally.

A loud bang sounded, and she heard the diseased people coming towards them, gasping out 'Please's and 'Help's. She heard Cassandra screeching in the Doctor voice.

"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?"

"Ladder." Kati-Rose choked out, "We've got to get up."

Doctor-Cassandra immediately started climbing, Rose following close behind. The poor diseased people were coming towards her, but her head was filled with pain and gold mist. They reached out to touch her.

"Stop!" she cried, panicking, "Please don't touch me! Please! I don't want to hurt you!" The excess gold flared, leaving her head to go into the sick people, the exact thing that she didn't want to happen.

Kati-Rose's headache immediately vanished, and she lifted her head to look at the ill, and saw them all glowing faintly, with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Are- are you OK?" she asked them hesitantly.

The woman at the front looked at her with gratitude on her face, "The pain has gone. Thank you. But it will come back." she told Kati-Rose sadly.

"I **will** fix this." she told them, "I promise."

And she followed Rose and Doctor-Cassandra up the ladder, feeling much better now that her headache was gone (she would have to ask the Doctor about the gold sometime, but that wasn't her top priority).

When she reached them, they were trying to get through the doors to the next level, and Cassandra was switching between them, with the Doctor demanding she 'give Rose back' and Rose telling her to 'go into me, for gods sakes'. When Cassandra next switched into Rose, Kati tugged on her leg.

"Go into me." she said softly.

"I ain't complaining." Said Rose-Cassandra, and the energy stream went back into Kati-Rose, and the world became a dream again.

"Not her again." the Doctor growled, "You've messed up her mind enough."

Cassie frowned. "Just open the doors. She's trying to get something done and she wants you to stop being so rude."

The Doctor sonic-ed the door open and they all go into the Ward 26 waiting room.

"This is your last warning Cassandra." he told Cassie, who upon entering the room had immediately sat down on the floor, her eyes closed.

"Inside her head." Cassie said softly, "She knows everything. She knows what will happen, and how it will." Rose and the Doctor turned to face her, mirror looks of shock on their faces. "She even knows the basics of what is happening here. How did she know it was a psychograft?!" she frowned, annoyed, before continuing.

"She's worried. Not about her. She's worried that she won't be able to protect everyone. Her first trip, and she's already thinking about how many lives she will be able to save." Cassie took a shaky breath, and the Doctor smiled slightly.

"She's scared too, Doctor. She's afraid that you'll find her boring, or annoying, or picky, and push her away when you need everyone you have. She's afraid for Rose, because she'll be one of this world's casualties after the battle." Rose frowned: this was the second time someone had told her that she would be a casualty in battle, and quite frankly, she was scared as well.

"She's worried about Jack." Cassie laughed, "She hasn't even met him yet! She's worried about telling you too much information, because if the idiot in her brain says too much, she's going to be too pissed to let me do this..." Kati-Rose jumped up, "and I'm back!"

She started pacing in front of the door, muttering to herself.

"...yeah, sorry about that..."

"No, it's fine! I love being pushed around by gold sparkles..."

"...Hey, **you** were the one that infiltrated **my** head, not the other way around."

The other occupants of the room had been watching this exchange with varied levels of caution. The Doctor turned to them, clapped his hands (making them all jump) and started talking.

"So hows it going up here? What's the status?"

Frau Clovis answered him. "There's nothing but silence from the other levels. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip a signal to New New York, they can send a private executive squad."

Kati-Rose turned around. "Nope! No-one goes in, no-one goes out. There are ten million people in that city that I won't allow to get infected. Frau Clovis, where does that put you and your boss?"

She swallowed. "Where does that put us?"

"Ten million and one and ten million and two. Doctor, you'd better have a plan, because I'd not got very far past the threat-y thing."

The Doctor grinned: he did have a plan, it seemed. Of course he does, Kati-Rose told herself. It's the Doctor.

"Rose, Novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, Your Grace. Get intravenous solutions for ever single disease."

When no-one took any action, he added: "Move it!" and the room was filled with motion. Everyone grabbed drip bags wile the Doctor collected a long piece of heavy silk rope and started hanging it on his body.

He turned to Kati-Rose, his hands in a 'whaddaya think?' position. She scrutinised him, and nodded, "It'll do. I'm gonna take a break."

She relaxed slightly, and Cassie returned. "Blimey. Being shoved in a cell at the back of someone's head is not fun." Rose glared at her.

"And what is it you're doing?" she asked Cassie, hands on her hips. Cassie rolled her eyes.

"We can fight later. Move, alien boy!"

The Doctor opened the lift doors and moved through them towards the cables. He began working on a wheel to take them down to the lift.

"The lifts aren't working," Cassie reminded him irritably.

"Not moving. Different thing. Rose, go back and help them, ok? Don't let them do anything drastic."

She nodded, and he pulled out his sonic.

"Here we go!" The Doctor put the screwdriver between his teeth and ran for the cables. He jumped, and grabbed them.

(Throughout all this Kati-Rose was a silent observer, able to take control at any time. But if she did so, Cassandra would get hurt, and she was not willing to cause pain to anything if she could help it. She wasn't even sure how she was doing it- jumping back and forth between passive and active, but if she willed it to happen, it did. She wanted answers, though, but it still wasn't the top priority- better than Hermione.)

"What do you thing you're doing?" Cassie asked him.

"I'm going down," the Doctor said. "Come on!"

"Not in a million years," Cassie told him shortly. Kati-Rose's fear of falling had carried on into her, and had been heightened by the trampoline's self-preservation instincts.

"I need another pair of hands. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?"

As Cassie considered this (and thought of a witty retort) Frau Clovis yelled out, "Seal the doors!" and they were trapped.

Sick of the indecision, Kati-Rose took over momentarily and jumped onto the Doctor's back, despite her hate for falling.

"Hello!" she said brightly in his ear.

He grinned, "Going down!"

His improvised wheel worked amazingly. They dropped down to the lift, Kati-Rose holding her breath for the whole trip, trying not to scream. They came to a gentle stop, and she immediately darted off the wheel, and let Cassie have control. The Doctor didn't notice.

"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever." he told Cassie.

She frowned, "There's still a quarantine down there, we can't." Cassie pointed out.

The Doctor started taking the drip bags off the silken rope. "Hold that lever!" he demanded. "I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself."

Cassie rolled her eyes. He's called the Doctor, of course he does, she thought in a 'duh' Doctor started ripping the drip backs and pouring the contents into the lift's disinfectant tank. As he did so, he instructed Cassie on what to do.

"Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got." he emphasised.

"What about you?" Cassie asked, Kati-Rose's concern leaking through.

"I've got an appointment." He told her with a wink. "The Doctor is in." and he dropped down into the lift.

**xXx**

_What's your opinion of Kati-Rose? Is she too... what's the term... like Harry Potter? You know, with that saving-people-thing? I did have that self-insertion joke, and somehow Kati-Rose just... stole my personality. It's not my fault, I promise! Opinions? Reviews? I can haz? *look up at you pleadingly*_

_Ta-ta (for now),  
LoS _:D


	6. All Dem Hotties Wear Coats

**Chapter Six: All Dem Hotties Wear Coats**

_Welcoming Captain Cheesecake._

**xXx**

I'm touched that you think I'm cool enough to own this.

**xXx**

Kati-Rose sat on the floor of the library she had conjured in her mind, idly fiddling with her hair. Not her new hair, her old hair. She felt another presence, and jumped up, prepared for an attack, but relaxed and sat down again when she realised who it was.

"Hiya, hot-stuff." she greeted Jack, who had just walked into the room, wearing his trademark WWII coat, "You're cute in your head."

Jack laughed. "This is my perception of myself." he winked, "Speaking of which, why do you look so different?"

"This is my perception of myself." she told him seriously, "I haven't found a mirror outside yet."

He changed the subject, satisfied with the answer. "Liking the mind palace, blossom. Funny, I always thought of you as a secret garden kind of person." he told her, looking around at the beige walls lined with books.

Kati-Rose shrugged, "I have that too, though it's not really a secret. Just there." She jerked her head towards the spiral staircase- sure enough, around the steps there was a small garden that made up her limited knowledge of botany.

Jack laughed. "What's with the solitary confinement?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

"Hardly solitary if you're here." Kati said truthfully, "Speaking of which, why **are** you here?"

"Don't want to talk to Cassandra." Jack said, "She insulted my dashing good looks."

He posed and they laughed, sitting a while in companionable silence. Kati-Rose couldn't really think of anything to talk about, and Jack was fine with just being there for the girl he saw as his sister.

"Well, best be off. I have a reputation of being dramatic, I have to keep up appearances." Jack told her, and stood up as Kati-Rose did the same.

"See you 'round, hot-stuff." she said, and hugged him just before he disappeared.

She sat back down on the rug, cross-legged, and hummed the Doctor Who theme. Suddenly, the room was filled with a blinding white light and-

**oOo**

-She collapsed into the Doctor's arms, and he jumped slightly.

"Oh!" he exclaimed in surprise. "You alright?" Kati-Rose tried to get up, but her legs weren't strong enough. "Woah!" the Doctor said, catching her again. "You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah. Headache." she said softly.

She looked up at his face. His hair was all messed up, and when he saw her watching him, he smiled gently.

"Hello." she told him.

"Hello." he said. "Welcome back."

Cassip (A.N: Cassandra-Chip) broke the moment. (what moment? There was no moment!) "Oh, sweet Lord. I'm a walking doodle."

After making sure that Kati-Rose could stand, the Doctor walked closer to Cassip.

"You can't stay there." He told her sadly. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

Cassip considered this sarcastically. "Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time." She smiled sadly, and Kati-Rose gave a sob, attracting Rose's attention.

Her eyes were screwed up (against the headache), and tears (of pain, sadness?) were clinging to her eyelashes. Her skin had a gold tint.

"Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing." she said. "I don't think he's going to last." Cassandra staggered and fell to her knees as Kati-Rose did the same and vanished in a flash of gold.

**xXx **

_I'm so sorry it's so short! It's less than 700 words, wow. Apologies. If I can get a review from someone other than BowTiesAreCool97 and The Ghostly Horse (though you two feel free to review), I will post the next chapter before Saturday, which is the day I have deemed 'Fanfiction Day'. Yeah. Saturday is now my default upload day, aka the day to expect a new chapter when I haven't bargained an earlier upload date using reviews, and the only reason I will upload new chapters before then from this point onwards is either because I'm very bored or because of the aforementioned bargaining. Yeah... thisissogoingtolast._

_Ta-ta (for now),  
LoS _:D


	7. Because Screw Inescapable Cages

**Chapter Seven: Because Screw Inescapable Cages**

**or**

**Daleks Will Rule, Statten Will Drool**

_I couldn't think of a humourous title for this chapter, so I made it a 'screw you' tribute for Henrey Van Satten.  
Go jump off Bart's, you b st rd. No-one likes you._

**xXx**

Me no own. Why not? Nobody knows...

**xXx**

Kati-Rose appeared in a dimly lit area with alien artefacts on display. She lay on the carpeted floor, exhausted. The ends of her vision were black, and as she sank into unconsciousness, she heard the blaring of an alarm and saw a flash of red.

**oOo**

Kati-Rose awoke with a gasp, her eyes opening before slamming shut again to protect her pupils from the light.

"Finally." said a disinterested male voice, "It's awake. Doctor Smith, what is it?"

Another, higher pitched voice spoke out from above her, "It looks human, but the brain has much higher levels of activity. I would suggest keeping it sedated and confined at all times."

"You. Thing." the first voice said, "What are you, and who am I to you? Smith, turn down the lights so that it can open it's eyes."

Kati-Rose did as the man said and opened her eyes, glad to see that the lights had been dimmed. She blinked rapidly, trying to get the room into focus.

"I am human." She said confidently, cursing her croaky voice.

"Who am I? Do you know me?" the first voice asked again. She turned her head to look at the male. She recognised him from somewhere. Then it clicked.

"Mister Henry Van Statten." Kati-Rose said cautiously, "You own the Internet."

Van Statten smiled- it wasn't a nice one. "Good. Put it under."

And the world went black.

**oOo**

Kati-Rose spent the next few weeks? Months? Days? Hanging on a wall, drifting in and out of consciousness. If she tried to move during her brief periods of consciousness, a cool liquid would go into her bloodstream from the needle on her left. Occasionally, they would wake her up for tests, which mainly involved them scanning her brain and stabbing her with a pin to ask, 'did that hurt?'. Though, sometimes, they would give her different drugs from the needle on her right, just to see her reaction to them. Henry Van Statten was a sadistic jerk.

However, one day when she woke up, she wasn't alone. Van Statten looked over at her as she came out of the drug-induced haze.

"Hello, thing. I've found you a friend." he gestured over to the other wall, where the ninth Doctor lay chained, spread-eagled and stripped to the waist. Kati-Rose looked away, cheeks darkening. Van Statten smirked at her discomfort. "His name is the Doctor, apparently. I'm just about to do some tests." he smiled, "Should be fun."

The Doctor awoke with a gasp.

"Now, smile!" Van Statten told him, and aimed the laser at the Doctor's torso. It moved down, scanning the time-lord.

"Two hearts!" Van Statten exclaimed happily, "Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this."

"So that's your secret." The Doctor spat, "You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."

Kati-Rose would have cheered if she could use her voice, but her throat was parched and her vocal chords were hoarse from screaming.

"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it." Van Statten boasted.

"Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from a Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold." he said smugly.

"Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives? Oh, and you see doll-face over there?" he gestured over to Kati-Rose, and the Doctor's face turned from one of hatred and disgust to one of shock and sadness when he realised it was her.

"We're about to make a breakthrough on it. With a bit of it's brain tissue and some cyber technology, we'll gain the ability to teleport in a few months. However, we can't duplicate the brain tissue, so we'll have to take a fair bit of it." Van Statten said, grinning evilly. So this is what they had planned for her. Cut her up and turn her into technology.

"Do you know what a dalek is, Van Statten?" the Doctor said hatefully. "A Dalek is honest. It does what it can for the survival for it's species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you." and Kati-Rose agreed fully.

Van Statten shrugged, "In that case, I will be true to myself and continue."

The Doctor started panicking, and Kati-Rose couldn't blame him- having the bane of your race a floor below you was a worthy reason to panic.

"Listen to me!" he shouted, "That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"

"Nothing can escape the cage." Van Statten told him dismissively, and blasted him with the laser again.

"But it's woken up, it knows I'm here. It's going to get out." the Doctor pleaded. "Van Statten, I swear, no-one on this base is safe. No-one on this planet!"

Van Statten ignored him and ran the laser scan again, making the Doctor scream. Kati-Rose sobbed, but she was too dehydrated for tears. An alarm sounded, and a voice came over the intercom.

"This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

"Release us if you want to live." the Doctor said calmly, and Van Statten (always with his self-preservation in mind) undid the chains binding them.

Kati-Rose collapsed to the floor, too weak to stand. The Doctor pulled on his T-shirt, grabbed his jacket and rushed over to her, lifting her to a sitting position. He opened his jacket, wrapped it around her and drew her into a hug.

"It's okay, yeah? It'll be okay." he told her softly, and Kati-Rose nodded into his chest.

He lifted her up, wincing at how thin she was, and cradled her to him. Kati-Rose yawned. Drug induced unconsciousness really takes it out of you, she thought sleepily.

"You can go to sleep, if you want." the Doctor told her kindly, and she fell asleep before she could decline, her pendant heavy against her chest.


	8. How To Play a Plute

**Chapter Eight: How to Play a Plute**

_Lucky you: you got an early chapter._

**xXx**

Awww, you still think I own it? You're so sweet...

**xXx**

Kati-Rose woke up to hear the Doctor yelling, and the Dalek's reply.

"You would make a good Dalek." and that was so, so wrong. Dalek's killed for the sake of it- the Doctor killed his race and the Dalek's against everything he stood for just so the universe wasn't destroyed, along with millions of innocent races.

"No you wouldn't." Kati-Rose told him, and he turned around, his face filled with self-hate.

"Really?" he spat. "Why not? Why isn't it right?"

"Dalek's don't like leather." she told him seriously, and his face softened into a small smile.

"Go back to sleep." the Doctor said, and for no apparent reason, she obeyed.

**oOo**

The Doctor shook her awake.

"Kati-Rose." he whispered, "C'mon, wake up. We're going adventuring."

"Where?" Kati-Rose asked. What had happened while she was out? It could only have been around 5, 10 minutes tops.

"I need a weapon." He admitted, "Adam's taking us to his workshop."

A weapon? For what? Kati-Rose asked herself. The Doctor never carried weapons, unless it involved- oh, she realised. He was going to kill the Dalek.

"Ok. Can I get a trinket?" Kati-Rose asked.

"Sure." he said, smiling.

He stepped back to give her room and she swung her legs off the chair onto the ground. She stood up shakily, leaning heavily on the Doctor, and they made their way down the stairs. What had happened in this episode? Kati-Rose asked herself, searching her memory rooms for the episode. Oh, yes! Kati-Rose gave a wince as she stood a particular way, and the Doctor tapped her arm in comfort. There was the Dalek, trapped in a cell, then... Rose had brought it back to full life, that was it. It had killed everyone (her throat closed up) and was going to kill Rose when... something... stopped it. But she couldn't, for the life of her, remember the end of the episode.

They continued their descent.

**oOo**

Kati-Rose sat on the desk beside the box as the Doctor went through Adam's collection. His workshop was rather messy

"Broken, broken, hair-dryer." he muttered. Kati-Rose reached into the box, and pulled out something that looked like a giant snail shell, but had pads going around the spiral, and a bit that stuck up near the biggest pad.

"What's this?" She asked the Doctor.

He picked it up and examined it. "It's a plute!"

Kati-Rose took it back gently. What's that? She wondered. A Piano-Flute? "A plute? What does it do?"

"If you press your lips to the sticky-uppy bit it makes a noise when you touch the pads." the Doctor explained, then went back to searching through the space junk while Kati-Rose tested the 'plute'.

"Oh, yes." The Doctor said, lifting a a cylinder, "Lock and load. Let's go, Kati-Rose."

He ran out the door and started going up the stairs, taking two at a time. Kati looked apologetically at Adam before pocketing the 'plute' and following, albeit at a slower pace. By the time she'd reached the floor that Rose was at, the Doctor had the gun pointed at her.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." Rose explained. Kati-Rose looked over to the Dalek. It's casing was open and the creature inside had a tentacle stuck into the sunlight coming through the hole in the roof.

"But it can't-" the Doctor said in disbelief, not wanting to consider that the being that had helped cause the destruction of his race could ever change.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It's changing." Rose persisted. "What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?"

"I couldn't-" the Doctor swallowed, "I wasn't-" he took a shaky breath, and dropped the gun.

Kati-Rose wrapped her arms around him, despite her hair only just brushing his chin. Now she remembered and she almost wished she didn't. Despite all the Daleks had done, this wasn't alright.

"Oh Rose. They're all dead." the Doctor said shakily, holding Kati-Rose tight, who in turn leant into him.

"Why do we survive?" the Dalek asked him.

"I don't know." the Doctor said truthfully.

"I am the last of the Daleks." the Dalek told him.

"You're not even that." the Doctor told it, "Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?" the Dalek asked.

"Something new," he paused. "I'm sorry."

Rose looked from the Doctor to the Dalek and back again. "Isn't that better?" she asked the Doctor.

"Not for a Dalek." the Doctor told her sadly.

"I can feel so many ideas." the Dalek said in wonder, "So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die!" it demanded.

"I can't do that." Rose said. She was so pure, Kati-Rose thought. So, so pure, until she had to do this.

"This is not life," the Dalek yelled, "this is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction. Obey! Obey!"

"Do it," Rose told it sadly, tears in her eyes.

"Are you frightened, Rose Tyler?" It asked her.

"Yeah," Rose admitted.

"What of you, Goddess?" the Dalek's eye turned to Kati-Rose, "Are you frightened?" Goddess? Kati-Rose repeated internally, shuddering slightly. Why would a Dalek, the most hated thing in the universe, call her a goddess?

She took a deep breath. "Yeah," she told it, "I wish you luck in the life beyond." It didn't seem to do the moment justice, but it would do.

"Thank you," the Dalek turned to Rose and told her, "So am I. Exterminate."

Rose ran towards the Doctor, stumbling slightly on the rubble from the ceiling.

The Dalek shut it's eye and the metal casings closed. It slowly rose into the air, the spheres that adorned it's outer shell separating to form a forcefield around it. Then the Dalek imploded in a burst of golden-white light.

**oOo**

"Little piece of home." the Doctor said stroking the TARDIS, "Better than nothing."

"Is that the end of it?" Rose asked, "The time war?"

"I'm the only one left." said the Doctor, "I win. How about that."

"The Dalek survived." Rose pointed out, "Maybe some of your people did too." Rose said hopefully.

"I'd know." said the Doctor, "In here." He tapped his temple, "Feels like there's no-one."

"Well, good thing we're not going anywhere!" Kati-Rose said, looping her arm in Rose's, who smiled, before extracting it and amending her statement.

"Well, except for in the TARDIS." She opened the door and ran in, leaving the Doctor to complain to Rose about Adam.

Kati-Rose ran down the coral halls, the metal floor clanging as she did so. She turned two corners and ran down a flight of stairs, at which point she found herself in a kitchen.

"Thank-you TARDIS!" she yelled at the roof, which was midnight-blue with stars on it, and the TARDIS gave a whirring hum in reply.

Five minutes later she was sitting at the small table shaped like a crescent moon in the centre of the room, eating a bowl of the jelly-beans that she'd found in a cupboard labelled 'Susan'. The young Time-Lady liked Earth confectionery, it seemed. Kati-Rose knew she should be eating real food but she couldn't imagine being able to stomach anything real. Her stomach felt as though it had shrunk to the size of a tennis ball and she couldn't feel her legs. She felt on the verge of a mental breakdown and was sure she would scream at someone soon.

"TARDIS," she started, trying to take her mind off herself, "what do you want me to call you?"

On the wall opposite her, she saw a word being written in reply.

"Home." Kati-Rose read, and she smiled. Then a headache hit her. She groaned. On top of everything else, she had to go through this now? She gave a shaky laugh, trying not to cry.

"This comes at the worst of times," Kati complained, her voice trembling, and the TARDIS gave a whir in agreement. "And I was really hungry too," she added, trying to be light-hearted.

She vanished in a burst of golden light, and when the Doctor came to find her to get his jacket back, all he found was a bowl of jelly-beans and 'Home' written on the wall.

**xXx**

_Uh... Who doesn't love whump? Fluffiness in the next chapter, I promise. She hasn't eaten proper food in about a week though she's been given an IV drip, she's had mental and physical trauma though not enough to permanently damage her and she's a superhero because she still hasn't snapped yet. Don't worry, it cannot continue like this. She's just trying to be nice because she's that kind of person and doesn't want anyone to worry about her. Yeah, she's stolen my personality. Sorry?_

_Also, leave a review for a chapter tomorrow! If I get 2 reviews, I will post another chapter in around 24 hours, give or take a few._

_Ta-ta (for now),  
LoS _:D


	9. Being Nice to Your OCs is Overrated

**Chapter Nine: Being Nice to Your OCs is Overrated.**

_I'm so mean to poor Kati-Rose _:D  
_On the other hand, four more reviews?!  
Guys, you're so sweet.  
Here you go, an even earlier chapter because I just couldn't stand keeping you in suspense._

**xXx**

Ha ha, ha ha, you think I own it? Ha ha ha ha... oh, gosh... *wipes tear from eye* Wait, were you being serious?

**xXx**

When Kati-Rose appeared in her next timeslot, she swayed, gave a small sob, and fell. She never reached the floor, however, as there was a small scuffling noise and then a pair of cool arms clad in tweed were wrapped around her. Her eyes were clamped shut and she vaguely heard a baritone voice telling someone to 'get her some water or something, and hurry, she's in a bad state', but Kati-Rose was so disorientated that she didn't even notice they were talking about her, and felt sorry for whoever it was that caused the two to worry so. The last thing she was aware of before slipping into protective unconsciousness was cool lips on her forehead, moving to form three words.

"_I'm so sorry..."_

**oOo**

When Kati awoke, she was cocooned in puffy blankets, and her head was filled with a dull throbbing that, she was sure, would intensify if she opened her eyes. Needless to say, she kept them closed.

"Ugh..." Kati-Rose moaned. "What did I drink?" she asked rhetorically, as she often did when she woke up with a headache (she'd never been hungover in her life, she was proud to say, but she was prone to exaggeration).

She heard a small giggle, and wanted to find out who it was, but she wasn't quite ready to open her eyes and leave the warm, half-awake version of the world. However, this was inevitable, and her time there was lessened when a certain **someone** jumped on her bed, and her eyes jumped open.

"Kati-Rose!" said a Scottish voice. "You're awake!" Quite obviously, as you just heard me talk, Kati-Rose thought in irritation. Or had she been talking in her sleep before? It didn't matter anyway, she was awake.

Aforementioned Kati-Rose was pulled up into a tight hug, her head surrounded in red-auburn hair that smelt of fruit. Apples?

"Don't you ever do that again." Amy whispered into her ear, and she was pretty sure that a tear dripped onto her shoulder before Amy released her and she fell back onto the bed with a whumph, jarring her already-sore head.

Amy turned around, picked up a tray filled with food and dumped it unceremoniously onto her lap. The plastic seemed to dig into her skin, sending her nerve-endings alight. Why did she hurt so much? she cried out internally.

"Here's your... something. I'm not sure what time it is, so I can't say breakfast. Yes, there is nutella. No, there is no egg, and yes, the Doctor was the one who ate half of one of the jammy dodgers. I ate the other piece of toast." She told Kati-Rose with a smile, and walked out of the room.

"Enjoy your something!"

Kati-Rose manoeuvred her legs into something resembling a cross-legged position, despite the pressure to her hips, and began eating her 'something' absent-mindedly (she assumed that there was a sort of medication in it, as with every bite her headache seemed to lessen and her aching muscles loosened. Though it could just be the fact that it was food - it had amazing healing properties) while looking around the room. Like the kitchen she'd encountered in 9's TARDIS, the roof was a midnight blue with constellations but it was dome-shaped and the stars seemed to blink and glow on and off in a rippling motion. The room was rather dim, which she was incredibly thankful for.

The midnight blue faded to a brandeis blue (she knew what colour that was: she'd googled it after reading it in a fanfic (A.N: Incredibly happy feelings for whoever can name the fanfic! Because that means you didn't just click 'back' as soon as you read the first sentence- mine can't compare)) as the roof/wall curved downward, and the carpet bore a striking resemblance to grass. The bed was situated in the centre of the room and the sheets shimmered like water.

"Home," she said, "this is amazing." And the TARDIS hummed in gratitude, soothing her frayed nerves and calming her distressed mind.

Looking down at the now-empty tray, Kati-Rose became aware of her state of undress- she'd been changed into a singlet and cotton pyjama bottoms. Her cheeks darkened a shade.

"TARDIS, is there a wardrobe?"She asked, then, remembering her previous escapade, she added, "and where is my Plute?"

The TARDIS hummed again, and in the wall, a panel slid open, displaying a darkened corridor.

Kati-Rose slipped off the bed and padded over to the wardrobe. The lights switched on as she walked through the doorways and when they lit upon the clothes, her jaw dropped.

Inside the wardrobe (if it could be even called that – it was more like a mall) there was **everything**. From outfits that she would never wear in her **bedroom**, let alone in public, to decadent dresses that would require a cricket bat to go anywhere in. There were flats and heels and boots of all kind (there was even a hot pink pair – those would be burned) and, quite mysteriously, there was a box on a table some 10 or so metres away. Kati-Rose walked at a relatively slow pace towards it, her head turning to look at different clothes that caught her attention.

When she reached the box, she gasped. Inside was the outfit she'd wanted to wear since she was a little kid (by little, she meant around 12 years old – she'd reached a measly 138 centimetres). It was rather simple – a pair of navy, slightly flared jeans, a TARDIS-blue T-shirt with a black butterfly on it and a black side-zip leather jacket. She took the clothes out of the box, and hugged them to her chest. There was a hard object tucked up in the jacket, and she looked inside to reveal other-dimensional pockets and her plute. Seated next to the outfit was a trilby with a TARDIS-blue ribbon, and she picked up the hat with a grin.

"Thank you so much, TARDIS." Yet another question asserted itself in the front of her mind. "Bathroom?"

**oOo**

Kati-Rose examined her new reflection – it was a lot to take in. It also **wasn't hers**. How could the Doctor have done this so many times and still manage to look amazing in his outfits? She wondered. Her previously pale skin was tanned olive on her face, and mid-bronze everywhere else. She had a small amount of freckles on her cheeks, but her chicken pox scars hadn't gone – they'd carried over to her new form. It was too much to hope that she'd achieved a pert nose- it was still as broad as her other one. Which, admittedly, wasn't that large.

Her hair was a lot like River's, and by like she meant exactly-the-same-but-dark-golden-brown. Kati-Rose had no qualms with getting it cut off if it became to bothersome. She brushed it hastily, though thoroughly, and put it in two plaits at the back of her head - they were symmetrical, of course. But her eyes... well, they were a dark grey-blue before she'd showered, but now they were more a hazel-blue. This posed a large issue when it came to colour-coordination, something Kati-Rose valued very much.

Kati-Rose was happy to say that her fashion sense was better than most of her friend's, and far better than the Doctor's. But she needed another opinion.

**oOo**

The Doctor spun around on his swing (a right and proper time-tot, Eleven was) and beamed at Kati-Rose.

Kati-Rose was, in turn, standing at the foot of the stairs in her new outfit, worrying the inside of her lip. She'd found black boots hiding amongst the other shoes, the TARDIS' idea of a prank. She was an other-dimensional ship - she had to amuse herself somehow.

"Is it OK?" she asked the bow-tie wearing alien.

Goodness knows why she asked him before Amy – he had no fashion sense whatsoever. But she wasn't quite comfortable around Amy yet - which made no sense as she wasn't a thousand year old alien who knew practically everything except for fashion and how to interact with humans. Her _brain_ made no sense.

His smile, if possible, widened. "You look lovely," he assured her, and Kati-Rose gained a smile of her own.

"Thanks. So, I have a question..." she trailed off, took a deep breath, and asked. "What in the name of jelly-beans is the gold stuff?" (A.N: I love jelly-beans. But not the black ones. And cinnamon is just gross. Yes, TimeLadyHope, they are Jelly Bellies.)

She'd been wondering this for a while, and she needed to know. If some random guy was going to cut her up for it, she wanted to know exactly what it was – arton particles, time vortex dust, void stuff. It was on her top 20 list of things to learn, just under why on TARDIS she was here.

The Doctor's smile faded slightly. "It's nothing to worry about! It's all fine. It's nothing, really. As you said, just... stuff," he finished lamely.

(A.N: Sorry to interrupt, but you should be reading this in Matt's voice. If you can't due to OOC-ness, tell me. I'll try to fix it. If it's something else, I suggest a healthy diet of Doctor Who episodes from series 5-7 and no apples. An apple a day keeps the Doctor away, and that is a very very bad thing.)

Kati-Rose raised an eyebrow. He would only leave out information if it worried him or would send her into a panic and the latter seemed less likely than the former.

"That 'stuff' got me chained to a wall and experimented on," she pointed out, feeling a bit of self-hate as she did.

That feeling intensified when the Doctor flinched. Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry... her mind cried.

He got up out of the swing and walked over to her, then placed his hands on her shoulders, making her feel very small. He looked her in the eyes, and her eyes flicked between his, looking at each in turn.

"Kati-Rose I am so, so sorry, but I can't tell you. I'm not allowed. You know about the time-lines. Yeah? You know about fixed points and, well, almost everything else, and I'm so sorry but I can't tell you. Not yet." His ever-changeable eyes were intense as he told her this, and she nodded, her now green-blue eyes wide and trusting.

The Doctor smiled, and kissed on the forehead, and the moment was over (what is it with these moments?! There are no 'moments').

"So, where to now?" Kati-Rose asked in a fake bubbly voice.

"We're going to a museum," the Doctor told her with an equally fake smile.

Ah, so this is where she was – the Time of Angels. Baise, Kati-Rose swore internally. She couldn't catch a break.

**xXx**

_You know, some people are really nice to their OC's. I , however, am determined to torture poor Kati-Rose as much as I can without becoming Stephanie Meyer (there is such thing as too much whump). One thing's for sure- Kati-Rose will probably not most likely not hopefully never become a Mary-Sue. Please, please warn me if you think that she is turning into the dreaded Mary with a side of Sue._

_What can this be? A cliffie? C'est ne pas possible! Yeah, I'm getting the hang of this 'cliffie' lark. I feel evil _**:D **Muah ha ha *cough cough*

_I'd say review for another chapter but I'm reaching the end of my written stuff! No! But don't let that stop you from reviewing. I am determined to keep going on with this, dammit, and I'll do it even if it puts me in the insane asylum! Review to keep me online and writing!_

_Ta-ta (for now),  
LoS _:D


	10. I Know Quite a Bit, Thanks

**Chapter Ten: I Know Quite a Bit, Thanks.**

_AKA My response when one of the bullies at my old school asked me 'What do you know?'_

**xXx**

Well, I'm, not Steven Moffat, nor DanniFielding (because I reckon she's brilliant - Hey, I can be fans of other fics!) nor am I Davies... So I guess I don't own it?

**xXx**

The Doctor wove between various exhibits in the museum, bending down to comment on their accuracy as he went by. Kati-Rose lingered by a few before going over to a stone box with circular carvings etched on it. The carvings wriggled around for a little while before forming five words – 'Hello Sweetie. Hiya Aunt 'Iana!'Who's Aunt 'Iana? Kati-Rose questioned herself. She continued to examine the box with a questioning look on her face- how had a metal box turned to stone? Was one of the prominent questions in her mind.

"Wrong. Wrong. Bit right, mostly wrong," the Doctor listed before smiling. "I love museums," he told Amy, who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, great," she said sarcastically. "Can we go to a planet now? Big space ship? Churchill's bunker?" Amy asked imploringly. "You promised us a planet next." she whined, indicating herself and Kati-Rose.

"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid." The Doctor told her, still weaving through the exhibits as she followed along on the Doctor's left. "It's the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever."

Kati-Rose tensed at the mention of the decapitated monastics – she remembered the episode of Demon's Run all-too-clearly.

"You've got a time machine." Amy pointed out, "What do you need museums for?"

The Doctor ignored her and went on with his list of inaccuracy. Kati blocked this out as she ran through all the possible people 'Iana could be. She came up with zero ideas.

"Wrong. Very wrong." He spotted another exhibit. "Ooo, one of mine." he said excitedly, "Also one of mine."

"Oh, I see." Amy said irritably, "It's how you keep score."

The Doctor noticed Kati-Rose staring at the box in the glass cube with a vacant expression on her face. He walked over to stand beside her her, and Amy followed, standing on the other side.

"Oh great, an old box." Amy said scathingly.

Kati-Rose lifted her head from where it was gazing at the box to face her, a look of indignation on her face. "Amelia Pond!" she said firmly. "Have some respect! This is one of the most important 'old boxes', as you so kindly put it, in the universe!"

And she was telling the truth. This box would save River Song in the very near past? Future? Anyway, if River died at this point, the time-lines would become so messed up, Amelia wouldn't have even lived to see her tenth birthday (Kati-Rose and her friends had spent ages going over possible scenarios of what would have happened if the Doctor hadn't have fixed the crack, the most prominent and likely one being that Amelia would never have existed.)

"Sorry, 'Iana." Amy said, looking at the floor.

"That's quite alright." Said Kati-Rose, smiling. So that's who 'Iana was, she though victoriously. Wait... Aunt?! After a moment of panic, she internally shrugged- she'd find out eventually. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.

The Doctor smiled. "The box is from one of the old star liners. A Home Box." he explained.

"What's a Home Box?" Amy asked.

"Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home box flies home with all the flight data." The Doctor explained.

"So?"

Kati-Rose cut in. "The writing, the graffiti. Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords." she said reminiscently.

"There were days, there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires and topple gods." The Doctor said, his voice (or was she imagining it?) slightly husky.

"So what does it say?" Amy asked.

"Hello Sweetie." The Doctor said incredulously.

"Hiya Aunt 'Iana." Kati-Rose completed, smirking. At least her hello wasn't condescending.

"Aunt?" Amy questioned. The Doctor hurriedly came up with an explanation.

"It was a term of respect for someone that made sure you were always okay and you looked up to." he told her. What? Kati-Rose thought. Really? What was she going to do for River Song?

"So what are we going to do with it?" Amy asked.

"We're going to borrow it." the Doctor said.

"Really. Are we ever going to give it back?" asked Kati-Rose teasingly. He never gave back the TARDIS, after all.

The Doctor pouted. "Maybe."

Kati-Rose grinned, "Good enough for me! To the TARDIS! Allons-y!"

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver (useful, that was- except on wood) and buzzed the lock on the glass casing. It swung open, and he grabbed it. An alarm blared. The trio started running towards the TARDIS as guards chased after them.

Kati-Rose grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, ushering the Doctor and Amy in, before spinning in herself and shutting the door firmly. The Doctor immediately rushed towards the console and started hooking the stone cube up to the monitor. Kati-Rose leaned against the door, watching the pair.

"Why are we doing this?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract our attention." he said, indicating himself and Kati-Rose, who twiddled her fingers in a wave. ((A.N: you know, that transverse wave thing you do with your fingers? No? Just me?))

The Doctor waved back before continuing, "Let's see if we can get the security playback working."

The screen flickered to life to show River lowering her sunglasses and winking at the camera. The Doctor adjusted one of the cables and the video zoomed forward. A man came up to her, flanked by guards.

"Party's over, Doctor Song." He told River, "Yet you're still on board."

"I needed to see what was in your vault." River told him. "Do you all know what's down there? Any of you?" she asked. "Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach it's destination."

"Waits 'till she runs." the man told the guards, "Don't make it look like an execution."

River looked down at her watch. "Triple seven five," she started listing, "slash three four nine nine ten, ten twelve slash acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor." she added, perfecting her hair as she did so.

The Doctor moved over to the keyboard and started typing in the coordinates. Kati-Rose smiled. Acorn, she thought, shaking her head. This was an example of official coordinates - what had the world, sorry, universe come to?

"What was that?" Amy asked, "What did she say?" She held onto the rail at the bottom of the monitor.

"Coordinates." Kati-Rose told her from the doorway.

The Doctor pulled a few levers and pressed a button that made a 'ding!' noise as the recording of River and the men continued.

"Like I said on the dance floor," River said flirtingly, "you might want to find something to hold on to."

The man at the front gained a look of surprise as he noticed the airlock seal and he and his men grabbed onto the pipes along the side of the corridor. The airlock behind her opened as River blew a kiss to the men.

The Doctor gave a whoop as the TARDIS materialised and rushed towards the doors. Kati-Rose moved to the side slightly as he pushed one open and reached out to pull River into the TARDIS. They both fell over and Kati-Rose giggled (she remembered all the times that they had to re-take that shot in her world- poor Matt.)

Amy looked at the pair on the floor in shock, her arms at her sides. "Doctor?" She asked.

"River?" The Doctor breathed.

"River!" Kati-Rose said happily, moving over from her position beside the doorway. She bobbed down beside the aliens on the floor.

"Either get up or snog him," she told River seriously, who smirked while the Doctor blushed.

"Sure," River replied flirtatiously. Kati-Rose laughed, and helped her up.

The Doctor jumped to his feet and the three went over to the doors to see the Byzantium zooming off. "Follow that ship," River told him, voice serious now.

The Doctor and River rushed over to the console (this moment was what made Kati-Rose wonder the purpose of that previous statement) and started programming the TARDIS to keep up with the ship. Kati-Rose made her way over at a leisurely pace (she couldn't fly the TARDIS, so she wouldn't be of much help. She may as well take her time). River took off her heels and hung them on the bar underneath the screen.

"They've gone into warp drive." River stated, checking the screen, "We're losing them. Stay close."

"I'm trying." said the Doctor, pushing buttons and pulling levers. Kati-Rose went over to Amy, and leant on the railing next to her.

"Heya Ames! How's life on the TARDIS?" she asked Amy cheerfully in a whisper.

"Boring." Amy complained, "I want to see a planet." Kati-Rose would have scolded her at this point in time, but admittedly, she wanted to see a planet as well.

"Yeah, for a alien with a ship that travels in time and space, you would think that he would be able to go to a place other than England. Good Gummi-bears," Kati-Rose said. ((A.N: Because Australians all eat Gummi-bears))

The two girls laughed in hushed tones, drawing the attention of the Doctor, who had just sat down in a huff on the pilot's chair.

"Watch this." Amy whispered quietly in Kati-Rose's ear. "Doctor," she started. "How come she can fly the TARDIS?" she asked.

This seemed to send the Doctor deeper into his tiff. "You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!"

"Okay." River started, "I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to it's destination, and parked us right along-side."

"Translation." Kati-Rose called out to the room at large. "You've mapped the quantity with both direction and magnitude that has elements which are non-negative real numbers that add up to one, amplified the time and distance preserving map between two spaces from behind, followed the ship to it's destination using the the reverse magnified time and distance preserving map and landed." She bowed, then straightened up, and frowned.

"How did I know that?" she asked. The Doctor, however, was more focused on the last part of her statement.

"We haven't landed." he told River, who smiled smugly.

"Of course we did. I just landed her." she told him.

"But, it didn't make the noise." the Doctor said, akin to a child whining.

"What noise?" River asked him, confused.

"You know, the-" the Doctor tried, and failed, to imitate the sound the TARDIS made when it landed. Kati-Rose clicked her fingers, and the TARDIS played the noise (when the Doctor was trying to make the wheezing noise, she had asked the TARDIS, very nicely, to make the noise when she clicked. The TARDIS was wrapped around her finger when she was polite, it seemed). The Doctor gave her an incredibly grateful look, to which she replied with a wink and a smile, which made him blush. She saw why River did this now- it was incredibly fun.

"It's not supposed to make that noise." River told him, "You leave the breaks on."

"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise." the Doctor blustered.

"Come along, Pond. Let's have a look." he said. He started to walk towards the doors, Amy following.

"No, wait." River called after them, "Environment checks."

"Oh, yes, sorry." said the Doctor, who had reached the doors, "Quite right. Environment checks." He opened the doors and swung out.

"Nice out." he said matter-of-factly.

River looked over to the screen. "We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that-" the Doctor cut her off.

"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra system. Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven hour day and chances of rain later." he prattled off.

"He thinks he's so hot when he does that." River sighed in exasperation. She and Kati-Rose walked towards the doors.

"Does what?" Kati-Rose asked her. "Imitates a GPS and the radio weather?"

The girls laughed while the Doctor pouted.

"How come you can fly the TARDIS?" Amy asked River.

"I was taught by the very best." River boasted.

The Doctor looked smug, "Yeah, well-"

"It's a shame you were busy that day." River told him, and his face turned 'grumpy' as Amy would put it later. "Kati-Rose is an excellent tutor. Right then, why did they land here?" she asked rhetorically.

Tutor? Kati-Rose asked herself. How big a part of River's life was she? How many things did she change by being here, in this universe? And how did she learn to fly the TARDIS? She wrenched herself out of her thoughts- she didn't want to end up like Sherlock, sitting in a single spot for hours.

"They didn't land." Kati-Rose said, remembering what came next.

"Sorry?" River said, unsure of what she had heard.

"You should have checked the Home Box." the Doctor told her, "It crashed."

River went slightly pale, and rushed out of the TARDIS. Amy turned to the Doctor.

"Explain." she said shortly. "Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"

"It's a long story and I don't know most of it," The Doctor said in an equal tone. "Off we go," he started walking towards the console.

"What are you doing?" Amy said, remaining by the door, next to Kati-Rose.

"Leaving." the Doctor said in staccato. "She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."

"Are you basically running away?" Amy asked bluntly. Of course he is, Kati-Rose thought. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Though the Doctor had sworn against violence, so it's more like: he who runs away, lives another day (which is still true).

"Yep," the Doctor replied.

"Why?" Amy asked. Because he has the ability to, Kati-Rose answered internally.

"Because she's the future. My future."

"Can you run away from that?" Amy asked, full of questions. Can anyone really escape the future? Kati-Rose wondered.

"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me." the Doctor said.

"Adelaide Brooke." Kati-Rose said loudly, her voice cracking slightly.

The Doctor paled.

"In the name of Adelaide Brooke, I ask that you never, **ever **say that again." she said to him. It was cruel of her, she knew, to remind him of his moments of insanity and the consequences of his actions.

"Okay." The Doctor choked.

"I'm sorry..." Kati-Rose whispered. It's okay, he mouthed.

Amy looked between them- Kati-Rose looked close to tears but determined, and the Doctor had reacted as though he'd been told that someone had killed his beloved pet cat.

"Hang on," Amy said slowly, breaking the moment (For the love of jelly-beans, Writer! There are no moments!). "Is that a planet out there?" she asked.

"Yes, of course it's a plane," Kati-Rose said.

"You promised us a planet," Amy pointed out to the Doctor.

"Five minutes?" Kati-Rose pleaded.

The Doctor relented, "Okay, five minutes."

"Yes!" Amy cheered, and she and Kati-Rose hi-fived.

"But that's all, because I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything."

Oh yes she will, Kati-Rose thought, as Amy dragged her out the door to look at the once-sleek spaceship sticking out of a building carved out of the rock, a burning wreck.

The Doctor followed them out of the TARDIS to where they were standing five feet away, staring, transfixed, at the spaceship.

"What caused it to crash?" Amy asked.

"Not me." River said.

"Nah, the airlock would have sealed seconds after you blew it." The Doctor told her, "According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors."

Kati-Rose wandered off, trying to get a closer look at the building, her boots scraping slightly against the rocks covering the ground. From the way it looked, you wouldn't be able to tell that as soon as you went into it, you were a goner. It was filled with millions upon millions of statues, and all of them were Weeping Angels. How in the name of jelly-beans had the Doctor survived this?

Behind her, she heard River, the Doctor and Father Octavian talking about the 'mission'. One statement stood out among the rest.

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

Kati-Rose's blood seemed to freeze in her veins. Now, above all other times, she realised that this was really happening.

**xXx**

_Ha ha ha ha haaa... *sigh* Well, I said I wouldn't, but I did. Now you can all be on the edge of your seats until next Saturday/Friday! Have fun!_

_Also, 20 reviews? You spoil me so!_

_Ta-ta ('till Saturday/Friday),_  
_LoS :D_


	11. How Much Are Two Pennies Worth?

**Chapter Eleven: How Much Are Two Pennies Worth?**

_No, seriously, I've forgotten. J'ai oublié. Isn't it 2 cents?_

**xXx**

Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha haaa... No, I don't own it. Yet...

**xXx**

By the time the sun had set, the rest of Octavian's troops had set up camp around the small container unit with their supplies. The Doctor walked over to the rock Kati-Rose was sitting on and sat down beside her. He'd sent Amy back to the TARDIS, a noble but futile effort on his behalf.

"On a scale of one to ten, how scary did you find this episode?" He asked her softly.

Kati-Rose wasn't sure how to answer that. Kat had been terrified, understandably- she'd hated Blink. Jade had come to her apartment after the first part with a OMG-I'm-scared-but-amazed look on her face to have a fan girl talk, and Selena hadn't seen it at all (she was ashamed of her friend, but it was her mother's fault). Kati-Rose hadn't been as scared as she was during Silence in the Library (she'd stayed out of the shadows in libraries for the next week) but she'd been insanely worried. Living through it would be another experience entirely.

"About a seven," She said honestly, "But living through it would be about a ten. Amy will most likely be terrified."

She added the last bit on so that the Doctor knew what to expect from his red-headed friend. Though, when she really thought about it, the likelihood of her managing to stop the angel-going-into-Amy's from even happening was growing by the second. She wouldn't risk changing time by not taking Amy's place when she could. What if it went wrong and she wasn't saved? Call her a self-sacrificing-Mary-Sue (she shuddered internally) with a saving-people-thing all you like - in comparison to Amelia's, or the Doctor's, Kati-Rose's life was nothing. At least, that's what she thought.

"What will make Amy so scared?" the Doctor asked.

Oh, you know, she'll be almost killed and taken over by an angel, it's no biggie, Kati-Rose felt like saying, despite her determination to stop it. But she settled with a shrug, which apparently to the Doctor meant, I-know-but-can't-tell-you, and let the matter drop.

"Come with me to talk to Octavian?" the Doctor asked after a few minutes.

"I thought you'd never ask," Kati-Rose said and he took her hand as they walked to the bishop, who was standing at a table.

"So, what's the mission status?" the Doctor asked him, his hand, Kati-Rose noticed, still in hers.

"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship," Octavian informed him, "Our mission is to get in a neutralise it."

Kati-Rose frowned. He still had a bit to explain. "How are we going to get in?" she asked him, despite knowing the basic answer.

"We can't get through the top, we'd be too close to the drives," Octavian answered, "According to to this," he indicated the small device he was using as a map, "behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up."

"Oh, good," The Doctor muttered, squeezing Kati-Rose's hand in his considerably cooler one. She squeezed back, and he flashed her a smile.

"Good, sir?" Octavian asked, confused about how this news could possibly be good.

"Catacombs," the Doctor said in explanation.

"Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great," He finished sarcastically.

"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead," Octavian corrected.

"You can stop any time you like," Kati-Rose said cheerfully. I **so** need to be reminded of this episode, she thought sarcastically. Or did she?

A soldier came up behind Octavian. "Father Octavian?" he asked to get his attention.

"Excuse me, sir," Octavian said to the Doctor, and followed the soldier.

Amy came up behind them."You're letting people call you sir," She pointed out, "So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?"

The Doctor turned to face her, pulling Kati-Rose with him. "Now that's interesting," he said, "Which part of, 'Wait in the TARDIS 'till I tell you it's safe' was so confusing?"

"Ooo, you are all Mister Grumpy Face today," Amy teased.

"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form in the universe, and I'm supposed to climb after it with a screwdriver and a torch, and assuming I survive the radiation, and assuming the whole ship doesn't blow up in my face, do something incredibly clever that I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?" the Doctor and Kati-Rose snapped, the only difference being that Kati-Rose substituted the I's and my's for he's' and his' respectively (she'd loved this statement and took great delight in repeating it to her friends when they asked her how her day was going to be like during exam week). A sign of how stressed the Doctor was that he didn't react to it.

Amy, once again, demonstrated her lack of tact. "Is River song your wife? Because she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone besides Kati-Rose do that. She's kind of like, you know, 'heel, boy.' She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?" she asked. For apparently no reason whatsoever, Kati-Rose felt a twang of jealousy at the questions.

Kati-Rose went into her mind palace just to slap mind-Amy, and she heard the Doctor sigh almost inaudibly beside her. "Yes, you're right. I am most definitely Mister Grumpy Face today." he said.

Kati-Rose looked up at him and smiled gently. His worried eyes met hers. 'It'll be okay,' she mouthed, and he nodded indiscernibly, his brow relaxing slightly.

River calls over from the drop module, "Doctor! Doctor?" Kati-Rose looked over to see her in combat fatigues. She looked down at her own outfit, and shrugged; Amy's was much worse.

"Oops," Amy commented, "Her indoors." She was ignored.

"Father Octavian," River called again.

"Why do they call him Father?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"He's the bishop, they're his clerics. It's the fifty-first century. The Church has moved on," He answered.

Kati-Rose laughed seemingly spontaneously. The Doctor looked down at her.

"What's so amusing?" he asked, his lips twitching.

She grinned. "I'm imagining Amy and Jack in the same room."

He laughed also, but sobered up when River came closer. "I've got something you should see."

The trio followed her and Octavian into the drop ship, where they found a grainy four second loop of an angel on the monitor on the far wall. Kati-Rose didn't even notice that her hand was still in the Doctor's.

"What do you think?" River asked him. "It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's only four seconds, but I've put it on a loop," she said.

"Yeah, it's an angel," the Doctor said, "Hands covering it's face." He pointed out their main characteristic.

Kati-Rose couldn't help but add her two-pennies-worth. "And it's got wings and is wearing a dress and isn't moving as if it's made of stone, and basically looks like a Weeping Angel. Anything I've missed?" she asked rhetorically.

"You've encountered the Angels before," Octavian stated.

"Nope!" said Kati-Rose in a falsely cheerful voice.

"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving," the Doctor said distractedly.

"Oh, c'mon, Doctor, it wasn't that long ago. Now, **Mel** was a long time ago. Martha was not," Kati-Rose said, carefully avoiding mentioning one of the rare companions that had died on their escapades with the Doctor.

"But it's just a statue," Amy pointed out.

"It's just a statue when you see it," Kati-Rose and River said in unison.

River shot Kati-Rose an odd look and she barely refrained from rolling her eyes- what was it now? What had she done to receive such a worried look – filled with, dare she say, fear?

**xXx**

_She's not a Mary-Sue! She's not, she's not! She's me - at least, she is now. She wasn't before but then I wrote a few chapters at 10 pm. Joy. But she is not a Mary-Sue. I Googled the definition - Mary Sues are characters that are self-sacrificing but always seem to come off better and more perfect from it. _

_For example, if they were scarred, they wouldn't be horribly disfigured, they would have intricate lines adorning their skin, barely visible, or there would be a medicine to fix it. _

_Or if they were possessed by a horrible demon, they wouldn't be ill and sick and keep relapsing to a barely-alive state and end up looking like a zombie and go blind or something (*laughs nervously* ignore that last one - I just had an idea), they would battle them off and reign victorious and gain uber-cool powers because they absorbed their mana. _

_She's not a Mary-Sue. My goal is to, ultimately, kill her. But I'll torture her first. *scrambles back, trying to avoid the hands that have come clawing through the screen* I'm joking, I'm joking!_

_Ta-ta (for now),  
LoS _:D

PS: _Or am I?_


	12. Trying To Beat the System

**Chapter 12: Trying to Beat the System**

**xXx**

Well, it was mine... *starts singing* but I'm afraid it was only just a dream...

**xXx**

_Sorry, thinglings! I thought I'd uploaded this... LOL, nope._

**xXx**

"Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all the time," River answered. Kati-Rose gave a soft frown. What had that look meant? she wondered. Does this mean I'm successful in saving Amy?

"There's a different between dormant and patient." the Doctor told her.

"What's that mean," Amy asked, "it's a statue when you can see it?"

"The Weeping Angels can only move if their unseen," River said. "So legend has it."

Kati-Rose had begun gazing at the statue, silently, unblinkingly. Even if the effort was futile, she had to try. She remained in the same posture as she corrected River, "It's not legend. It's a quantum lock. As soon as they are seen by any living thing, they turn to stone. It's a fact of their biology."

"The ultimate defence mechanism," the Doctor said softly.

"What, being a stone?" Amy asked.

"Being a stone until you turn you back," the Doctor told her in a low voice. He suddenly straightened, seeming to radiate excitement and energy.

"Alright!" the Doctor clapped his hands, making the occupants of the room flinch. "Let's go outside?"

"Nah, I'll stay here," Kati-Rose told him, "I need to check something."

"Alright," the Doctor nodded. "Amy, River, Father Octavian?" he asked. The aforementioned people nodded and followed them out while Kati-Rose stared at the angel.

Needless to say, she was rather good at staring at things for prolonged periods of time. When she was younger, she'd had a habit to 'zone out' – she'd stare at certain objects without blinking for prolonged periods of time when she was thinking something over, and occasionally it had taken physical force for her friends to get her to stop staring at their hair-ties (Jade had not been very amused).

Staring contests had also helped, and whovians took these thing very seriously. Well, her friends did. There was also a captioned image she'd found. 'Blink one eye at a time - beat the system'. She'd have to tell them that it worked. However, her examination of the Angel's wings (She counted at least fifty feathers) had been broken when Amy opened the door to the drop ship to join her, when she looked back, she saw that the Angel had raised it's face from it's hands slightly and had started looking over it's shoulder.

Amy called out. "Kati-Rose?" she asked the girl having the staring contest with the screen, "Kati-Rose? What are you doing?"

She moved her hand in front of her Kati's eyes, and she jumped and cursed.

Dammit! Kati-Rose swore internally, before following with some words that she would prefer not to be mentioned. Amy had ruined it! She had been doing so well.

"Oh well, it's not like I would have been allowed to change it," she muttered, resigned. It was true, of course. It was not as if she could just go gallivanting off through the Doctor's life, throwing herelf in front of targets like some air-headed girl that thought she was invincible. Her parent's-, never mind. It should have taught her that no-one could survive forever.

"Change what?" Amy asked her. Change what indeed? What could she change?

"Change what is going to happen next," Kati-Rose answered calmly. Even if she couldn't change it, she could still try. What did she have to lose? She heard the module door close and give a click.

"That'll be the deadlock," she muttered. Amy was looking at her oddly.

"The screen," Kati-Rose told her, gesturing towards the monitor with her head. During the conversation, the Angel had moved closer to the camera. 2 phases before it gets out, Kati-Rose thought. What would she do then? Would she run and leave Amy to confront it, leave the red-head to her fate? Would she take her place? Time was running out and her brain was fighting between its survival instinct and her emotions and desire to save everyoe. You will fail, of course, her brain reasoned.

Amy looked to the screen with a look of shock on her face. She tried to turn off the monitor, but every time she the screen faded to black, the Angel switched it back on again. Kati-Rose wanted so, so much to keep looking at the angel, keep them both safe, but in the end, this had to happen to one of them and she was in no way intending it to be Amy. Heart versus head, she was pretty sure the phrase was, and heart had won.

"But you're just a recording," Amy told it, "You can't move."

She tried to pull out the lead to the monitor, getting in Kati-Rose's line of vision as she did so, but the cable wouldn't budge. When she moved out of the way, the Angel was up close to the camera.

"Amelia..." Kati-Rose paused. Her friend turned to look at her, and blocked her view of the Angel again. "The image of an angel becomes in itself an angel," she told her. Might as well get the worst over with, her brain told her. If you're going to be so sacrificial you might as well not give yourself a chance to back out.

This was vitally important information, and, yes, it **was** scary, but Amy went into a full-on panic. She rushed over to open the door, knocking Kati-Rose over in the progress. She then started banging on the metal, calling for help all the while.

"Amelia Jessica Pond!" Kati-Rose yelled. "Yes, you're panicking, yes, you may be about to die, but calm the **baise** down!" She looked back at the angel, but it was too late- it had skipped the last stage entirely and was now flickering as the recording did inside the room, out of the screen. Are you happy now? something inside snarled. You might fail and kill both you and Amy.

Amy, however, was not going to calm down. "Doctor!" she yelled in panic. Why wasn't **she** panicking? What was going on? How was she standing there, staring, as the most terrifying thing imaginable was coming towards her? And why was she hearing music...?

Kati-Rose heard an answering voice shout, "Kati-Rose! Amy!"

Amy called out again as Kati-Rose kept looking at the Angel that was now in the room with them.

"Doctor!"

She heard a frantic voice calling from outside the drop ship, "Are you alright? What's happening?"

"Doctor? Doctor, it's come out of the television," said Amy in a voice just as panicked as the Doctor's. Kati-Rose just kept staring at the angel, trying not to look into its eyes.

She could hear voices from outside, but she was focusing on looking at the Angel's dress, wings, anywhere but the eyes. But they were like magnets, and she screwed her own shut, trying to focus. Big mistake. The angel grabbed her face between its hands and forced her to meet its stony eyes, contorted as it snarled.

She heard a gasp, and took her own shaky breath. Don't panic, don't panic. Why was she panicking now? She'd been fine up until this point, why was she panicking? "Doctor?" she called, still looking at the angel's eyes, "the Angel doesn't tolerate disrespect. It's my aunt reincarnated – if you don't look it in the eyes, it grabs your face and forces you."

She felt a horrifying sensation of falling as something went **into her eye** and the angel disappeared, leaving her to fall to the ground just as the Doctor and River burst in. She vaguely heard Amy explaining what she had done as she blinked rapidly before screwing her eyes shut. Her fingers tingled and she flexed them. Thanks, adrenaline. Why are you here now?

"I froze it. There was some sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel anymore. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good."

She heard River's voice say, "That was amazing." and the Doctor telling her to hug Amy.

"Why?" River asked.

"I'm busy hugging Kati-Rose" was his reply.

The Doctor leant down beside Kati-Rose and gathered her up into his arms, noticing how she kept her eyes firmly shut. Kati-Rose was sure that she should be more stressed than this, but the angel was in her mind, fiddling with her brain, and she felt slightly numb. What was that? What had she been worrying about?

"That was not funny," he told her seriously, and she nodded.

"You okay?" he asked. She gave a shaky laugh, eyes still closed.

"No," she said truthfully and he gave her a slight squeeze. "But you need to get Amy the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy," she told him seriously.

"Why?" he asked.

"Don't panic," she told him, and he laughed.

"Open your eyes for me?" he asked, "Please?"

Kati-Rose really didn't want to open her eyes. Really, really didn't. But then she did, and it wasn't her. Her eyes flew open, grey as a storm cloud, before slamming shut again. "Satisfied?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. It had been worth it, she thought, to see the Doctor's worried face, proof of how much he cared about her. It was nice to be cared for. Wait, what?

An explosion came from outside. "Doctor?" Octavian called, "We're through."

"For the moment," the Doctor answered her last statement, and kissed her forehead before helping her to her feet. "And I'm not helping you walk if you don't open your eyes," he told her jokingly.

Kati-Rose grudgingly opened her eyes, knowing that he wouldn't follow through with that threat, but then she would have to explain why she couldn't open her eyes, and she wasn't allowed to do that, as far as she knew.

"Okay, now it starts," the Doctor said, and he, River and Amy walked out of the drop ship.

"Coming?" River asked Kati-Rose.

"Yeah," she replied, "There's just something in my eye."

_And in my head. What is wrong with me?_

**xXx**

_This chapter is very, very messed up. It's purposeful. And very, very important to the plot. Very, very important. I mean, this is perhaps the most importantly-worded chapter in the story so far. _

_This chapter carries a subliminal message that is important to the plot. Really important. It will reappear again in other chapters at specific points and eventually lead up to the end. And I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. But it's time to wake up._

_- LoS_


	13. Like Music From a Piano (And Thanks!)

**Chapter 13: Like Music From a Piano**

**xXx**

Nope, don't own. Haven't I said this?!

**xXx**

_So, thinglings, I have had to do research for this story. Actual, proper, research! Well, sort of. I googled some things then came to my own conclusions required for the story based off logic. So any of these facts are most likely LoS-edited in order for the plot to make sense. And for the facts to make sense. If any are drastically wrong, I sort of don't really care, but feel free to tell me! :D_

LoS-Fact 1: _The area you are in when you are asleep effects your dreams._

_Now, I know for a fact (you see what I d__i__d there?) that this is true. Enjoy!_

**xXx**

Her boots made a crunch noise on the floor as Kati-Rose released the rope and dropped the last half-metre to the floor of the entrance chamber. Ignoring the causeless throb in her leg, she switched on her torch and moved towards the front of the group to stand next to the Doctor as the last of the clerics came down the rope.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" the Doctor asked Octavian.

"Grav globe," Octavian said, and one of the the Clerics moved forwards to hand the Doctor the ball.

"Where are we?" Amy asked, looking around, trying to see with the small beam of her torch, "What is this?"

"It's called an Aplan Mortarium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead," River told her. A Maze of the Dead... doesn't that sound absolutely lovely? Kati-Rose remarked internally.

"What's that?" asked Amy, wanting more of an explanation.

"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone..." Kati-Rose started, then paused as the Doctor kicked the gravity globe into the air, where it illuminated the hundreds of statues and mausoleums that filled the maze of the dead. Kati-Rose took a shaky breath. Perhaps she should change her personal scariest monster to the Weeping Angels - this was absolutely terrifying.

"...the perfect hiding place," She completed, her voice shaking slightly. The Doctor pulled her into a one-armed hug, and Kati-Rose snuggled into his side, not caring that he was a thousand and something year old alien- she was scared, and he was comforting. That was a perfectly reasonable form of affection, especially as she was dying. She'd already mentioned the 'prone to exaggeration', hadn't she? Also, why was she scared now? She hadn't been scared before and it was about to take control of here?

"I guess this makes it a bit trickier," Octavian commented seemingly nonchalantly.

"A bit, yeah," the Doctor said off-handedly, arm still around Kati-Rose's shoulders.

"A stone Angel on the loose amongst stone statues," Octavian emphasised, looking around. "A lot harder than I'd prayed for," He admitted.

"A needle in a haystack," River said, looking out at all the statues.

"A needle that looks like a hay. A hay-like needle of death," the Doctor offered, "A hay-like needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine," he admitted, squeezing Kati-Rose's shoulders. She grinned brightly for no apparent reason other than to feel special. Who was she kidding, she was a whovian and fan-girl – the kind of person that laughs after a sad movie.

Octavian started ordering his clerics, "Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection."

He turned to the Doctor. "One question," He said to him, "How do we fight it?"

We find it, and hope," the Doctor answered grimly. Kati-Rose brought her hands up to her face and pulled them down, stretching her cheeks. She breathed in deeply through her nose as her fingers came to rest below her chin. This was a lot scarier than the episode.

**oOo**

The Doctor, Kati-Rose and Amy started walking up the terraces. Kati-Rose was fighting back the urge to rub her eye, she really was, but the Angel was playing with her mind, and she had no choice but to follow its rules. She paused, and turned away from the Doctor, rubbing her eye as she did so, and a copious amount of stone dust came out of her tear duct. She shuddered, disgusted at the feeling of the powder cover her face. River came up beside her.

"You all right?" she asked her.

No, Kati-Rose thought. But she settled with, "Yeah, just a bit nervous."

"Here, give me your arm," River told her, and Kati-Rose held out her left arm for her to jab the viro-stabiliser in, pointedly looking anywhere but the needle-like object. After she moved away, rubbing the location of the shot, Amy dropped down from the Doctor's side to talk to River. Not wanting to be caught up in the middle, Kati-Rose ran up to the Doctor, who was holding River's portable computer upside-down as he listened to their conversation. Kati-Rose elbowed him gently.

"Rude," she admonished him in a hushed tone, and he turned to her, smiled, and kissed her forehead.

"You're cute when you're scolding me," the Doctor told her, before blushing. He was like a teenager with his first crush.

"When you blush you're cuter," she told him, and then blushed herself. What in the name of gummi-bears had made her say that?! What was with her lack of control lately?

"You two are like child-hood sweethearts," Amy called up.

"Just kiss already!" River said, exasperated.

They blushed even harder, before Kati-Rose laughed, and went on tiptoes to peck him on the lips. The Doctor looked surprised (why? It was just a joke, it can't have been the first time she'd done it to embarrass him, as his body language around her said that they were very close friends), before smirking and leaning down to initiate a longer kiss.

Afterwards, he drew back, and smirked, before saying to the women at the back, "Satisfied?"

"Very," Amy said smugly, while River laughed. Kati-Rose was left wondering what on, well, not-Earth had just happened when they heard gunshots coming from the entrance chamber. They, like people did in the movies, shared a look before running towards where they heard the gunfire.

When they got there, they discover that a young cleric has shot at a statue, and the main group had moved closer to him. Kati-Rose stopped – what was up with its face? Was it snarling? She spared a few moments to ponder how crumbling stone could have a facial expression before shaking her head and paying attention to the barely-started conversation.

"Sorry, sorry," The cleric – Bob, that was it! - apologised. "I thought- I thought it looked at me."

"We know what the angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian asked in a slightly patronising tone.

"No, sir," Bob said. Well it's not _the _angel, but it is an angel, unless you want it to have a certified sticker? Kati-Rose thought sardonically.

"No, sir, it is not. According to the Doctor, we are facing a being of unknowable power and infinite evil, so it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of décor," Octavian said, not only to Bob, but the rest of the Clerics. Kati-Rose couldn't help but mentally correct his statement: being**s**.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked Bob. Bob shuffled slightly as the torchlight was pointed in his direction.

"Bob, sir," he said uncertainly.

"Ah, that's a great name," the Doctor replied cheerfully, "I love Bob."

"It's a Sacred Name," Octavian informed him, "We all have Sacred Names. They're given to us in the service of the Church."

"Sacred Bob," the Doctor said. "More like scared Bob now, eh?" he asked Bob.

"Yes, sir," Bob said truthfully. The name 'Bob' is being tossed about a bit, isn't it? Kati-Rose thought. She wouldn't say it, of course, but she could have her thoughts.

"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron," the Doctor told him. Quite rightly so, Kati-Rose thought, before throwing a small internal party to celebrate her not being a moron.

"Carry on," he said to Octavian.

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes," Octavian told his men. To Bob, he said, "You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach."

Kati-Rose tapped Bob on the soldier. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked him, and he nodded. She was giving advice to a dead man, but she couldn't let him just leave without her saying **something** to him.

"Now, listen," she said, her voice low, "Your fear will make you fast, but no matter how fast you run, the Angels will always be faster." Bob looked at her with fear in his eyes. How expressive they were, Kati-Rose thought somewhat vacantly. The doors to the soul must be made of glass, for I have never seen through others.

"You see that fear, right there?" Kati-Rose asked him, and he nodded, "That fear, Bob, makes you the bravest man that I will ever know. And you know what?"

"What?" Bob asked her uncertainly. He fiddled slightly with his fingers and Kati-Rose grew cold. He is going to die, she realised, and I can't do anything to stop it.

"I've wanted to meet someone called Bob all my life. No, it's true!" she insisted after seeing his doubt, trying to keep her voice from shaking, "I've never met someone called Bob before!"

He laughed- it was a very common name, and not knowing someone called Bob would have to be unlikely in this time.

"I think that you are the most amazing Bob there is, and I am so, so lucky to have met you," she smiled, and he smiled back. Is this his last smile? She wondered, Am I going to be the last person to see this smile on this face?

Kati-Rose stepped back. "Good luck," she said, looking at his eyes in turn, seeing the fear in them, but also the gratitude.

She felt a pang of guilt that resounded through her whole body at what fate would befall the young cleric. Guilt accompanied by sadness, which seemed to flow through her like music would from a piano. Any other emotions she may have had were numbed by the Angel inside. Or were they?

_What have I gotten myself into?_

**xXx**

_Yeah, what have I gotten myself into? I don't know..._

_Also, I just want to thank you, thinglings. _

_I've been reading a lot of fanfictions lately, and I realised just how bad mine are. I'm not kidding - the chapters are shorter than a castrated man's privates; the stories updated once a week, if I even remember, and the chapter quality is that of an eight-year-old. Heck, I'm pretty sure I wrote better when I was seven! And I have the story to prove it. *smiles weakly* I'm sure I could some up with a billion excuses as to why this is, but I won't. I just want to say thanks. Thanks, thinglings, for sticking with this newbie for so long. Thanks for still reading this fanfic, despite the major flaws and all the other fanfics you could be reading. Thanks for taking the time to bother and care and review and all the amazing stuff you do. Thanks for giving me a reason to continue, thanks for making me feel like I've done something cool, thanks for just existing. You have no idea how much I wish I could just meet every single one of you, just to say thanks. This was the fic I was most hesitant to post, especially seeing as I started it just after TWIWMTB and that was such a failure it's not even funny. But you thinglings have made it worth it. And I know it's just a shout into the cyber-space and most people don't even read this thing anyway, but thanks. Thanks so much. And especially to those that also read my _Fallen Angel_ fic, because I thought that it would literally just crash and burn._

_Luv you, thinglings!_

_LoS _:')


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